Fair focuses on environmental concerns
The event had 275 attendees; last year's fair attracted 140.
Published Oct. 5, 2004
Community members learned how to conserve the Earth's resources on Saturday when attending the Sustainable Living Fair at the Unity Center.
While the Sustainable Living Fair has been going on for two years, Mid-Missouri Peaceworks has presented Sustainable Living education since 1989, Mid-Missouri Peaceworks Director Mark Haim said.
This year they added a keynote speaker, four additional workshops for a total of 16, and a free vegetarian lunch, which included vegan chili and corn bread, Haim said. The event had 275 people in attendance, compared to the 140 last year.
"Hopefully, the fair inspires people to make their own lives more sustainable and encourage the community to be more sustainable," Haim said.
The Center for Sustainable Living and the Columbia Earth Day Coalition were the main sponsors, however, 10 other organizations also cosponsored.
Organizers hope to make people aware of how they use energy and resources in an unsustainable fashion, which effects everyone in the world, Haim said.
"A 13 percent of the world's population are consuming 60 percent of the Earth's resources while one-third of the Earth's population, which is 2 billion people, are living with 3 percent of the Earth's resources," Haim said.
In addition to the fair, Mid-Missouri Peaceworks also presented sustainability living classes since 1994, Haim said. The classes are $10 for students and they discuss everything from bicycle repair to organic gardening.
"Sustainable living is not about guilt or living without," Haim said. "But it is about a more balanced lifestyle and consciously making environmental friendly decisions."
Natural Parenting workshop facilitator Elise Brion said the workshops are always informative and allow people to learn different perspectives. The Natural Parenting workshop focused on home education, vegetarian diets, inoculations and home child birth.
Brion said the media perpetuates a propagandized perspective on child rearing based upon what experts say. The society's political, economic and social expectations do not let parents use their natural instincts, she said.
"We live in a society of fear where we are bombarded with propaganda and that strips people of their natural instincts to be able to care for their children," Brion said. "We have to show there are other ways to parent besides what is pictured in the media."
The fair helps people in the area who want to live more sustainable and help them feel not alone, Sustainable Home Ownership workshop facilitator Alex Maginness said.
As a real estate agent for Reese and Nichols Columbia Realties, Maginness knows about many ways in which houses can potentially harm not only the environment but also the people that live inside of them.
"Our health and the health of the planet are connected because the same harsh chemicals that harm our body also harms the environment," Maginness said.